Asus ProArt PZ13 Review
A more affordable Surface Pro alternative
Verdict
The Asus ProArt PZ13 is a great 2-in-1 Windows laptop that offers a gorgeous OLED screen, fantastic battery life and solid construction. Other competitors’ displays can get brighter, come with more powerful innards, and come with more in the way of connectivity, though.
Pros
- Superb battery life
- Gorgeous, svelte design
- Sublime OLED touchscreen
Cons
- Underpowered for the price
- Meagre port selection
Key Features
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip:The ProArt PZ13 features the 10 core Snapdragon X Plus, Qualcomm’s slightly lower power chip.
- 13-inch 3K OLED touchscreen:It also features a compact OLED touchscreen display with fantastic detail, colours and contrast.
- Keyboard & rear cover included:The ProArt PZ13 also comes with a keyboard cover and rear case with kickstand included.
Introduction
The Asus ProArt PZ13 aims to take a big slice of the 2-in-1 convertible laptop market away from Microsoft with a more affordable option against the makers of Windows’ own pro-grade option.
It aims to do this by offering a competitive package of a Snapdragon X Plus-powered 13-inch 3K OLED touchscreen convertible laptop complete with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for close to half the cost of Microsoft’s Surface Pro.
The £1199.99/$1099.99 asking price therefore isn’t wholly unreasonable, as it’s entirely in the ballpark of more conventional Windows laptops with similar innards, such as the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 (2024) and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 9 (2024).
I’ve been testing the ProArt PZ13 to see how well it performs with its clever 2-in-1 form factor, and whether it’s a viable choice for creatives on the go. Let’s find out.
Design and Keyboard
- Heavier than larger conventional laptops
- Minimal port selection
- Solid keyboard and trackpad
This machine comes in three separate pieces, with the main device as a 13-inch tablet-style computer, alongside a rear casing with a stand and keyboard/trackpad attachment. It reminds me of the HP Chromebook x2 11 with a similar form factor, and in that when the ProArt PZ13 arrives, it comes in multiple pieces.
The two covers supplied attach to the ProArt PZ13’s main body separately, with the keyboard/trackpad cover attaching via magnets on the underside of the tablet, and the rear casing attaching as a traditional hard case does. It’s easy to click in and means you can be up and running with this 2-in-1 in no time.
Despite this being designed as a more portable device for on-the-go creatives, the ProArt PZ13 tips the scales at 1.49kg with both attachments in place. The main portion weighs in at just 850g, though. It’s as heavy as some 15 and 16-inch laptops with a conventional form factor, some of which are convertible devices themselves.
The higher weight is indicative of the excellent build quality, though. Asus’ option certainly carries a premium feel with a full metal unibody construction, and while both the keyboard cover and rear case are majorly plastic, they are at least pleasantly finished.
Owing to the 9mm thickness of the main body, the ProArt PZ13 is lacking in the ports department. It only has a pair of USB-C ports and a full-size SD card reader. That’s it – no USB-A, HDMI or even a headphone jack. Granted, the USB-C ports are USB4-capable, although as with older MacBook Airs before Apple brought MagSafe, one of those ports will be taken up when charging. You’ll be living the USB hub life.
The keyboard here is a smaller form factor one packed into the keyboard cover, coming with a reasonably tactile keypress that’s comfortable to use, if a little soft. I had no issue using it for writing articles over a week, and it’s rather easy to get up to speed with it.
There is some white backlighting beneath the keys, which illuminates them pretty evenly with solid results. The trackpad is on the larger side for a more compact setup, and offers especially positive actuation beneath.
Display and Sound
- Deep blacks and impressive contrast
- Virtually perfect colour accuracy
- Speakers leave a lot to be desired.
One of the big selling points of the ProArt PZ13 is its 13-inch 3K resolution OLED display that packs in a lot of pixels and sublime images into a smaller form factor. It’s certainly one of the best displays I’ve come across in terms of clarity and quality, which is certainly backed up when taking out my colorimeter.
Of course, OLED panels provide deep blacks and immense contrast, which is backed up by the 0.01 black level and 26780:1 contrast ratio I measured, meaning this is a panel with gorgeous results when both streaming video content and testing it out with OLED demo footage. Its 6300K white point is also as it should be.
The ProArt PZ13’s screen is also wonderfully accurate with perfect 100% coverage of both the mainstream sRGB space and more specialist DCI-P3 gamut. A result of 94% Adobe RGB is also immensely strong, and demonstrates how beautifully suited this Asus machine’s panel is for productivity and colour-sensitive workloads alike.
It is a touchscreen and felt responsive when scribbling in Microsoft Paint during my testing. There is an active stylus available for the ProArt PZ13 with the Asus Pen, which is solid at an additional cost. It is included with the Surface Pro, although Microsoft’s option doesn’t come with a keyboard cover, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
The only chink in this panel’s armour is its peak brightness, as is typical with OLEDs. It recorded a peak SDR brightness of 352.9 nits which, while suitable for indoor and outdoor use, isn’t as vivid and punchy as with other laptop displays.
The ProArt PZ13’s audio is much less impressive, though. There are a pair of speakers here that produce sound to a reasonably high volume, although with a lack of real substance and roundedness. You’re much better off using a pair of headphones as opposed to the built-in speakers.
Performance
- Single-core performance is reasonably strong
- Multi-core results are disappointing, and quite weak
- iGPU also lacks much in the way of power
As portable as the ProArt PZ13 is, the smaller form factor has led to a bit of a performance penalty against other Snapdragon X Plus and Elite laptops. That’s not to say that this is a bad, or underpowered, machine, but there is a sacrifice against options in a more conventional form factor.
The Snapdragon X Plus’ single-core performance inside Asus’ 2-in-1 is as strong as usual, although the multi-core performance in Cinebench R23 especially shows up against options from Dell and otherwise where the PZ13’s results are 45% or so slower. In day to day use, it still performs fine, but it’s just worth noting if you’re likely to encounter any more intensive workloads such as video and photo editing, which is arguably the entire point of this device.
It’s a similar story for 3D Mark Time Spy, too, where the sub-1000 score is meagre in a general sense, let alone for a laptop that carries a four-figure price tag. With this in mind, the other Snapdragon X Plus and Elite options also take a hit against options with discrete GPUs and more powerful integrated graphics inside, and while these Arm-based laptops are that well-suited for graphically intense workloads, you’re certainly best to steer clear of it with the PZ13.
On a better note, the 1TB SSD inside is of a generous capacity where some of the competitors come with half that, while its 5279.73MB/s reads and 4962.05MB/s writes make it one of the brisker performers. There’s also 16GB of RAM to give you enough headroom for any more intensive tasks, should you wish to undertake them.
Software
- Clean Windows 11 install with little extras
- Copilot+ PC offers AI smarts
- Some compatibility issues, being Arm-based
With the Snapdragon X Plus inside, the ProArt PZ13 is a Copilot+ PC, giving you the array of AI-based functionality that has become commonplace with this modern generation of AI PCs. It’s running full-fat Windows 11 with little in the way of additional bloatware and installed apps.
There are a couple of Asus-specific apps though, such as GlideX which is where you can manage tasks such as casting or mirroring the ProArt PZ13’s screen to other devices wirelessly, or transfer files across the same network. You can also enable remote access to a mobile device, too.
The Storycube app is designed as another means of organising photos and videos, using AI to recognise faces and file your photos for you, which is handy. MyAsus comes as part of the Windows taskbar when you first boot up the ProArtx PZ13. This is a handy app where you can check on your system’s vitals and change settings including the type of workload that the system’s built-in network card prioritises and even the type of sound mode the speakers run with, be it for games or music for instance.
In its most simplistic form though, the fun of being a Copilot+ PC comes with Microsoft’s Copilot AI, which is accessed by its dedicated key between the Alt Gr and arrow keys on the bottom row.
There is also AI tools baked into both Paint and Photos, with the former giving you a helping hand to create images based on prompts, or in a specific style, such as an oil painting. Generative AI is in Photos to create images, or add interesting filters to your photos.
The most useful element of the whole Copilot+ PC thing though is the Windows Studio effects that are now present with the laptop’s webcam and accessible in the bottom right corner of the desktop where you access Wi-Fi, battery life and volume settings. These can do everything from auto framing to ensuring you maintain eye contact even if you aren’t looking at the screen. That’s particularly eerie at first, but works in a similar way to Nvidia’s AI tools that I’ve experienced before in webcams including the Elgato Facecam MK.2.
Microsoft’s Recall feature is still missing, however. This would have taken screenshots every few seconds of use so you could look back and remember things you’ve looked at, even if you didn’t manually bookmark them in a browser or take a manual screenshot using the Snipping Tool. It will be available, although only for Windows Insiders at the moment due to security concerns.
Of course, being Arm-based, the ProArt PZ13 has some minor compatibility issues against x86-based ultrabooks as apps have had to be translated to Arm through Microsoft’s Prism translation layer. For the most part, I had few issues with compatibility in running a range of benchmark software, as well as Photoshop and similar apps. The PCMark benchmark app didn’t run fully on Arm-based Windows in my testing, though, and there have been reports that games such as Dirt 5 and some VPN apps also refuse to load from elsewhere, too.
Battery Life
- Lasted for 18 hours 15 minutes in the battery test
- Capable of lasting for two working days
In spite of its compact, tablet-style frame, the ProArt PZ13 impresses with a 56Wh capacity cell that powers it to some excellent results in our battery test.
When running a video loop test at the requisite 150 nits, Asus’ compact customer managed to last for 18 hours and 15 minutes from full until conking out. That’s some of the best efficiency I’ve seen from any Arm-based laptops, beating the likes of the Dell XPS 13 (2024), It did fall short behind Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7, which remains the true battery life champion.
The bundled 65W charger also provided decent charging speeds, taking 42 minutes to recharge from zero to 50 percent. A full charge took 95 minutes, which is one of the better results, too.
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Should you buy it?
You want a compact 2-in-1 with a gorgeous panel
The real standout for the ProArt PZ13 is its fantastic 13-inch OLED screen that comes with deep blacks, sublime contrast and wonderfully accurate colours.
You want beefier performance
The Snapdragon X Plus SoC inside the ProArt PZ13 lacks some horsepower, arguably owing to the form factor of this device. More standard form factor laptops in our best laptop list without 2-in-1 powers are likely to be a better bet if you need raw speed.
Final Thoughts
Asus’ ProArt PZ13 makes for a compelling affordable alternative to the Microsoft Surface Pro 11. This is largely because of its gorgeous OLED panel that’s also a responsive touchscreen, as well as its class-leading efficiency which beats a lot of the more conventional laptops we’ve tested.
The Snapdragon X Plus chip inside is as efficient as usual, although is lacking in performance in multi-threaded tasks against the likes of the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 (2024), which has the same processor. Its 1TB SSD is speedy and offers a solid capacity, too.
The issues with the ProArt PZ13 owe to its form factor, such as a meagre port selection and heavier mass despite its aim of being more portable. Going for a device like this can have its sacrifices, but it remains an excellent 2-in-1 Windows device for creatives.
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key factors, including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how well it runs popular apps.
We used as our main laptop for at least a week.
We test the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.
We test the screen with a colorimeter and real-world use.
We test the battery with a benchmark test and real-world use.
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FAQs
The Asus ProArt PZ13 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus SoC, and therefore runs Windows on Arm.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
